The Kurdistan Regional Government plans to export 100,000 barrels of oil, according to Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, but Iraq oil experts warn that Kurds should not produce more than the rate of production allocated to Iraq as a whole.

For the first time KRG will be able to formally produce oil in the fields of Taqtaq and Duhok, and it is expected that the produced oil will be exported to world markets through the Ceyhan Port in Turkey, Iraqi privately owned daily newspaper Rozhnama reported.

Barzani said the regional government has informed the Iraqi government that two of the foreign companies working in oil production in Kurdistan -- one Turkish and one Norwegian -- they have reached the stage of production for export.

He said oil fields in Kurdistan have now the capacity of exporting 100,000 barrels per day and this would be done through Iraqi oil pipelines.

The announcement about export capacity in the Kurdistan Region comes after the political and economic disputes that occurred between the Iraqi central government and Kurdistan Region in the last few months over the 15 oil contracts that KRG has signed with a number of Turkish, Norwegian and American companies.

According to Oil Ministry statistics, Iraq exports 2.4m bpd of oil. From this, 1.8 million barrels are exported through Basra Port and 600,000 barrels are exported through the Turkish Ceyhan Port to world markets.

Turkmenistan attaches great importance to Nabucco project

Turkey and Turkmenistan are holding talks over the importance of the Nabucco project, Anatolia reported.

Turkmenistan's Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Hojamuhammet Muhammedow met Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler in Ankara on Wednesday to discuss the project and gas prices.

Guler said they exchanged views on what could be done in the future regarding the energy issues between the two countries.

Guler said Turkmenistan attached great importance to the project and pursued talks with related countries as well as EU countries.

Guler said that he and a technical team from his ministry would visit Turkmenistan between June 6 and 8, and discuss joint projects they could undertake.

Tajikistan asks major company to pay for Uzbek gas to avoid cutoff

The issue of settling the debt of the open joint-stock holding company Barq-i Tojik to the gas distribution company state unitary enterprise Tajikgaz still remains unresolved, Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported.

The director general of Tajikgaz, Fathiddin Muhsiddinov, said that the Tajik government had instructed the energy holding to settle the debt for consuming gas two months ago.

"Barq-i Tojik has not paid anything yet. If the issue of settling the energy holding's debt is not resolved soon, it may lead to complete cutoff of gas supplies from Uzbekistan," Muhsiddinov said, adding that starting from last week neighboring Uzbekistan -- the only supplier of gas to Tajikistan -- has been exporting to Tajikistan about 500,000 cubic meters of gas a day. Tajikistan used to get 800,000 cu m day.

"As payments are not made on time, gas supplies from Uzbekistan might be completely cut off. This could inflict damage on the country's agriculture and economy as a whole. The two major enterprises Tojikazot (Tajik Nitrogen) and Tojiktsement (Tajik cement) have not been operating for several weeks," Muhsiddinov stressed.

A debt of the OJSC Barq-i Tojik to the Tajik gas distribution company amounts to more than $6.7 million.

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Closing oil prices, May 6, 3 p.m. London

Brent crude oil: $119.70

West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $121.39

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(e-mail: energy@upi.com)